It's the story we never get tired of hearing, and today the Los Angeles Times has it. The wives of Wall Street executives are having to scale back spending in the wake of poor economic times, and their mild suffering can become our immoral enjoyment as the previously pampered significant others have to tell their children, "Daddy can't buy you a Sea Doo watercraft this year."Housewife Fran Alvarez' husband was making $250,000 per annum writing software for Credit Suisse. Now things have taken a turn for terrible:

"Growing up, my mom used to buy the scratchiest toilet paper, and when we complained she would say, "When you get your own job, you buy the expensive type,' " Fran says. "Well, we're back to the scratchy stuff."

As pregnant Edison, NJ housewife Mona Mond puts it:

"It’s ironic, but I feel even poorer now," she says. "Maybe it’s because ... we got used to having things. Now we want things more and it’s heartbreaking for us."